Athletic shoes generally are fabricated from soft, pliable, light-weight materials, such as nylon, to enable the individual to exercise without unnecessarily adding to the stress of the exercise through heavier, more rigid shoes. However, it is during this type of activity, such as running, jogging and the like, that the individual may require support at the joints.
The recognized cycle of foot movement during running, jogging and the like typically is found to be heel strike, ball strike, pronation, release and supination. It has been found that the nylon-type athletic shoe fails to provide the support necessary for the foot during activity of this type. Thus, the known athletic shoe fails in the support of the foot securely in a neutral plane and allows the foot, because of the natural flexibility of the material to roll or pronate excessively during the cycle of movement. Running related injuries, not only to the ankle, but quite often to the knee and hip, may occur.
The control device of the present invention functions to control pronation and thereby eliminate or at least reduce the incidents of running related injury. The control device, even when used with the typical flexible athletic shoe, secures the runner's foot in a neutral plane thereby to reduce the amount of pronation which may be referred to as roll of the foot and, thus, overcomes the problems and disadvantages found to exist in prior art athletic shoes.